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John Connolly

Biography

John Connolly

John Connolly was born in Dublin in 1968. He worked as a bartender, local government official and journalist before publishing his first novel, EVERY DEAD THING, in 1999. He is the winner of a number of literary prizes for his work, including the Edgar, Shamus and Anthony awards, and a CWA Dagger. His latest book is HE.

John Connolly

Books by John Connolly

In the beautiful Maine woods, a partly preserved body is discovered. Investigators realize that the dead young woman gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby. Private detective Charlie Parker is hired by a lawyer to shadow the police investigation and find the infant, but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left by the woman, someone with an interest in much more than a missing child…someone prepared to leave bodies in his wake. And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring and a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman.

It is deep winter, and the darkness is unending. A private detective named Jaycob Eklund has vanished, and Charlie Parker is assigned to track him down. Parker’s employer, Edgar Ross, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has his own reasons for wanting Eklund found. Eklund is no ordinary investigator --- he is obsessively tracking a series of homicides and disappearances, each linked to reports of hauntings. Now Parker is drawn into Eklund’s world: a realm in which the monstrous Mother rules a crumbling criminal empire, in which men strike bargains with angels, and in which the innocent and guilty alike are pawns in a game of ghosts.

Stan Laurel followed in the wake of Charlie Chaplin, who blazed a trail from the vaudeville stages of England to the dynamic, if often seedy and highly volatile, movie studios of Los Angeles in the early 20th century. Awed like everyone else by Chaplin's genius (and ambition and cruelty), Laurel despaired of ever finding his own path to success --- or happiness. But success and happiness did find Laurel, following the inspired decision by impresario Hal Roach to put him and Oliver Hardy together on screen. Initially a calculated marriage of opposites in an era of highly disposable short films, the partnership bloomed into a professional and personal relationship of lifelong depth.

Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings, but destroyed himself in the process. In his final days, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death, but was saved; of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade. Parker is not like other men. He died and was reborn. He is ready to wage war. Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation and murder. All in the name of the being they serve. All in the name of the Dead King.

Jeffrey Epstein rose from humble origins to the rarefied heights of New York City's financial elite. A college dropout with an instinct for numbers --- and for people --- Epstein amassed his wealth through a combination of access and skill. But even after he had it all, Epstein wanted more. And that unceasing desire --- especially a taste for young girls --- resulted in his stunning fall from grace. From Epstein himself, to the girls he employed as masseuses at his home, to the cops investigating the appalling charges against him, FILTHY RICH examines all sides of a case that scandalized one of America's richest communities.

Syl Hellais and Paul Kerr have traveled through the mysterious wormhole known as Derith, from which no traveler has ever returned. Trapped in a dimension beyond their own, they emerge to discover a universe that has moved on without them. Years have passed, and Civil War rages among the Illyri. Earth is lost to alien parasites known as the Others, and the sinister Archmage Syrene of the Nairene Sisterhood has disappeared into the Sisterhood’s lair --- but not before choosing a new leader with her own plans for the future of her race. Syl and Paul must find a way to change the course of history and save the lives of billions.

In the most ambitious anthology of its kind, the world’s leading mystery writers --- including Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs and Ian Rankin --- come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that reveal as much about the authors and their own work as they do about the books that they love, over a hundred authors from 20 countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers.

Still recovering from his life-threatening wounds, private detective Charlie Parker has retreated to the small Maine town of Boreas to regain his strength. There he befriends a widow named Ruth Winter and her young daughter, Amanda. But Ruth has her secrets. Old atrocities are about to be unearthed, and old sinners will kill to hide their sins. Now Parker is about to risk his life to defend a woman he barely knows, one who fears him almost as much as she fears those who are coming for her.

In EMPIRE, John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard continue the journey of Syl and Paul as they fight to regain planet Earth from a ruthless alien species. Light years from Earth and millions of miles apart, the two must find a way to reveal the horrifying truth behind the Empire and save all that they hold dear from the hunger of the Others.

The community of Prosperous, Maine has always thrived when others have suffered. Its inhabitants are wealthy, its children’s future secure. And at the heart of Prosperous lie the ruins of an ancient church, transported stone by stone from England centuries earlier by the founders of the town. But the death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter draw the haunted, lethal private investigator Charlie Parker to Prosperous.

The first installment in John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard's new science fiction trilogy, The Chronicles of the Invaders, CONQUEST introduces a world where humanity has been conquered by a powerful alien rulership --- unless a group of young rebels can unlock their powers and help rescue humankind from its terrible fate.

When a new toy shop’s opening goes terrifyingly awry, Samuel Johnson must gather a ragtag band of dwarfs, policemen, and very polite monsters to face down the greatest threat the Multiverse has ever known --- not to mention assorted vampires, a girl with an unnatural fondness for spiders, and highly flammable unfriendly elves.

In the depths of the Maine woods, the wreckage of a plane is discovered. What it conceals is a list of names, a record of those who have struck a deal with the devil. Now a battle is about to commence between those who want the list to remain secret and those for whom it represents a crucial weapon in the struggle against the forces of darkness. The race to secure the prize draws in private detective Charlie Parker, who fears that his own name may be on the list.

Randall Haight has a secret: He is a convicted murderer, a man with the blood of a young girl on his hands. He has built a new life for himself in the small Maine town of Pastor’s Bay, but someone has discovered the truth about him. In a town built on blood and shadowed by old ghosts, one detective must unravel a twisted history of violence and deceit involving the police and the FBI, a doomed mobster and his enemies, and Randall Haight himself.

Young Samuel Johnson is in trouble --- an angry demon is seeking revenge for his part in foiling the invasion of Earth by the forces of evil. It wants to get its claws on Samuel, and when Samuel and his faithful dachshund, Boswell, are pulled through a portal into the dark realm --- the home of the Infernals --- it may get its chance.

In the dark reaches of Maine’s North Woods, a group of Iraq War veterans are engaged in a ruthless smuggling operation across the Canadian border. But what they have unleashed is far more dangerous than even they realize --- an ancient evil locked away in Iraq for centuries. Evil has dogged Charlie Parker’s steps, costing him his career as a cop and his license as a private investigator. Now, he is called in to stop the bloodletting, but to defeat the evil, he must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other: the killer known as the Collector.

Daniel Clay, a once-respected psychiatrist, has gone missing. Clay's daughter insists he killed himself after allegations surfaced that he had betrayed his patients to foul and evil men. But when a killer obsessed with uncovering the truth behind his own daughter's disappearance comes seeking revenge, long-forgotten secrets begin to emerge.

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Books On Screen

May's Books on Screen roundup includes the feature films On Chesil Beach and The Seagull; the series premiere of "Sweetbitter" on Starz and season two of "13 Reasons Why" on Netflix, along with the season finale of "Rise" on NBC; and the DVD releases of Fifty Shades Freed, Wonderstruck and 12 Strong.